Our Instructors

Instructors

Carlos

Carlos became a zumba instructor because he loves dancing and being surrounded by people having fun while getting into shape. Being a Zumba instructor is exciting and rewarding.

I am originally from Peru. I've lived in NYC for about 1 year and a half. ' I love Nueva York' says Carlos. He's danced for many years back in Peru... I like salsa merengue, afro peruvian music, and folk peruvian music..... I used to be a dance instructor in my country for about 5 years....

Now living in NYC as a zumba and fitness instructor, Carlos enjoys teaching. Why not come join us for a zumba class. Let's have some fun and at the same time get into shape....

Chilaires

Chilaires is from Turkey where she trained in belly and modern dance. She is an experienced instructor, choreographer, and performer in traditional, Egyptian, Turkish, various Arabic, Persian, tribal and fusion styles. She is also a choreographer for Dance of Venus, a dance troupe fusing modern dance and belly dance with various world dances such as Indian, Balinese and Latin dances.

Dan

Dan Shuman was introduced to yoga in 2004, as an antidote to the impact of running. The allure he felt was immediate, and in a short while it became a daily practice. He has studied vinyasa, Ashtanga, and Iyengar styles, and participated in workshops with Chuck Miller, Maty Ezraty, Bobby Clennell, Gabriel Halpern and others. In 2009 he completed Yoga Union’s 200 hour Teacher Training with Alison West. Ms. West’s exacting approach emphasized precise alignment, and is highly steeped in both western anatomy and Yoga philosophy.

A working musician who performs regularly in New York, the U.S. and abroad, Dan is interested in the yoga practice as a way to counter physical and mental habit, as well as help to relieve chronic pain to some extent. He embraces an anatomical and alignment-based approach to asana and is currently a student of Lara Brunn, Brooke Meyers and others.

Danielle

Danielle began practicing yoga as a teenager by following televised yoga classes during her nannying hours. She found it to be as graceful as her ballet class and as difficult as her viola lessons. She has continued to study yoga in a variety of methods, including power, vinyasa flow, bikram, and hatha. In 2009, she discovered the Iyengar method and received her 200-hour yoga teaching certification from Richard Schachtel, an Iyengar teacher in Seattle. Her classes focus alignment and self-healing, with the intention to teach her students how to live more mindful, peaceful, awakened lives.

Dolores

Dolores is an ACSM and Mary Mount College certified Exercise Physiologist. She has practice yoga since the mid 80's and is a certified Integral Hatha practitioner for Basic Hatha1, intermediate Hatha 11, Extra Gentle, Chair Yoga, Pre-Natal and Post-Partum Yoga. Dolores has traveled world wide sharing her yoga practices with world class musicians on tour, retreats, family and community. As a member of the New York Teacher's Yoga Alliance she has given workshops at the Department of Labor, The Board of Education, the Park Slope Food Co-op and numerous Senior Centers. Dolores' personal mission is the hope for everybody to find a system in which to integrate grace, strength, ease, a peaceful mind and a joyous heart! Fitness and excellence is not a luxury buy our essential birthright. We must take care of ourselves first and foremost so we will be available to care and serve others. Dolores studied at the White Cloud studio under Julio Norvath and is currently a certified gyrotonic (R) practitioner.

Jessica

Originally from Queens, New York, Yoga initially found Jessica when she was living in Huntington Station, New York. While being a committed gym-rat, she was attracted to the calm yet eager nature of the regular students tip-toeing into a New York Sports Club class on Saturday mornings. Her curiosity led to join them one day, and although she was not hooked from the beginning, she found herself going week by week craving the quiet. It was not until she moved to Manhattan a few months later that she began to fall in love with the practice. In the mist of busy New York, Yoga offered Jessica a sense of grounding and peace within city. Jessica completed her Vinyasa Yoga teacher training in 2009 at Yoga to the People in the East Village. The passion for Yoga and serving others was contagious, and since 2009 Jessica has been teaching group and private classes in Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens, and loving every minute of it. Jessica is currently a lead teacher for Bent on Learning and teaches private and group classes in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Joelle

Coming from Lyon, France and his diverse background where playing the accordion is a family pastime, Joelle broke that mold by becoming a hiphop clown dancer in Compton, California at 16 years of age. Then, he never imagined this would take him to the east coast where theatre musical would become his beloved career. A graduate of AMDA (American Musical and Dramatic Academy), he also has a BFA in Jazz/Blues/Pop Vocal Production and Theory, and certification in Orchestration/Notation. Alongside being a tough Zumba instructor, Joelle is also a back-up singer for several pop and r&b artists and a musical theatre performer.

Zumba first caught his eye while teaching a hiphop fitness class in Carson, California at the Veteran's Sports Complex in 2002, and since then he has been hooked. He soon-after became an apprentice to his instructor and followed her every step, becoming instructor himself and taking over the class as well as adding an additional class on the roster. Joelle's goal in his class is for you to have the time of your life while being inspired mentally, building your confidence, and getting a kick-butt workout.

Johno

Kaseedee

Kaseedee is a former dancer, professional cheerleader and cheer coach. She is currently a certified TurboKick instructor and an Independent Beach Body Coach.

Kenzie

MacKenzie Pause-Hurley began her yoga journey in 1997 where she fell in love at first aum. She finds joy in teaching students classical hatha, vinyasa, kids yoga, thai yoga therapy and meditation. She quickly discovered sound and music inspired her practice when the ethereal vibrations of crystal singing bowls made their way into her teaching, and in 2008, MacKenzie also created All You Need Is Love: Yoga With The Beatles, a flow class set entirely to the music of The Beatles. The success of the class in the Central Florida region followed her move to New York City, and in 2010, the class debuted in San Francisco. In every class her sense of humor works together with a light hearted and non-competitive approach to make all practitioners from the novice to the experienced feel secure and comfortable.

Michelle

Michelle stumbled upon yoga in 2002 as a way to burn calories and relieve stress from her job as a social worker. Over the years of sweating and breathing on her mat, she noticed yoga has the ability to transform one's state of being by linking breath to movement; to create space and be present in the mind, body and soul. While dealing with a neck injury, Michelle was introduced to Alison West and Deborah Wolk of Yoga Union and became inspired by the precision of Iyengar yoga and props! She completed her 200 hour teacher training in 2009 through Yoga Union. In 2010, she completed an advanced yoga teacher training with Schuyler Grant of Kula Yoga. She hopes to inspire her students to listen to their bodies, and make space in their hearts through a sweaty vinyassa class with an emphasis on alignment and maybe even get upside down!

Olga

An avid disciple of world dance, Olga El is inspired by the myriad of cultural traditions to which she has been exposed and a love of storytelling. From a young age, she was particularly enamored of the dances of the Middle East, North and East Africa—better known as belly dance—and chose these dance forms as the foundation of her personal fusion style.

She studied belly dance with notable instructors such as her main teacher and mentor, Oya; Somalian Fulbright Scholar, Arianna Al Tiye; world-renowned Oriental Dance scholar, Morocco; Belly Dance Super Star, Jillina and many others.

In 2008 she spearheaded the experimental belly dance troupe Bastet as well as its charitable sub-division, Belly Dance for Change. She is a member of the Afro-Latin Folkloric Dance Company,Estampas Negras and the Indian Dance Fusion Company, Naach Sensation. She also collaborates with other artists such as the theatre-based, experimental dance company Desert Sin, urban-inspired cabaret act, Billi Shakes, and the vintage East African musical group,The Sounds of Taraab. Olga has performed at Le Poisson Rouge, The Lafayette Grill, the Golden Festival, Arabian Nights, The CMJ Music Festival, The Shrine, Deity, the Katra Lounge, D'jam at Je'Bon, Dances of Vice, The House of Yes, Barbes, The Leopard Lounge, Alwan for the Arts, NYC cruise boats and many other NYC-based events and venues.

Sarah

Sarah fell into yoga six years ago to heal old spinal injuries and has since become an avid back bender and teacher. She has been teaching for two years and is trained in the Anusara style of yoga under Jackie Prete and Rudrani Farbman of the World Yoga Center. Sarah is grateful to her teachers and students who teach her so much about the authentic heart of yoga and the deeper meanings behind the practice. She is also certified to teach children, ages 5 - 18 through Karma Kids and has taught yoga to at-risk teens at alternative to incarceration programs through the Lineage Project. Sarah is currently a full time social work graduate student at Touro College and has found yoga to be integral part of social work - she leads meditation sessions for both classmates and clients. Sarah's classes focus on the proper alignment of the body in poses and always have a heart theme, designed to help students connect to the light within themselves.